Outrage and Inspiration

Oct 22nd, 2009 9:45 AM UTC
By Libby Crimmings

Last week, The World Food Prize hosted almost 1,000 participants including policy makers and leaders of various industries from over 65 countries to discuss food security, agricultural developments, and national security in a globalized world. ONE hosted a table at the event and signed up new members from all around the globe.

The World Food Prize was started by Dr. Norman Borlaug the father of the green revolution and the only Nobel Peace Prize recipient for agriculture to recognize individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food. This award is considered to be the Nobel Peace Prize of Agricultural development. This year the Laureate of the World Food Prize was Gebisa Ejeta, of Ethiopia, for developing sorghum hybrids resistant to drought which dramatically increased the production and availability of food for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This year the symposium featured an impressive list of speakers including Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, The Honorable Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico, Roger Thurow, co-author of Enough, many CEO’s and presidents of various businesses, Ministers of Agriculture and Ambassadors from around the world, past Laureates including this years, Gebisa Ejeta as well as Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

The week’s events lead up to World Food Day, Friday October 16th, or as Roger Thurow called it “No food day” for many people. Thurow and co-author Scott Kilman said they considered themselves to be crime reporters instead of authors and set a goal to outrage and inspire readers with their book Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in a Age of Plenty.

Agricultural development is essential to reducing poverty and hunger because over 75% of the world’s poor live in rural areas and are involved in farming. Bill Gates noted in his presentation that there are currently over 525 million small scale farms in the world—farms that have the potential to feed more people and help families increase their incomes. Several presenters emphasized that the global population is on the rise, and is projected to double in the next 50 years, which means that farmers, now more than ever, need higher yielding crops that thrive despite environmental challenges.

During his keynote presentation Bill Gates focused on the importance of developing crops specific to small farmers needs with increased productivity and higher resilience to things like drought and flooding. “We can be the generation that sees Dr. Borlaug’s dream fulfilled a world free of hunger.”

I think Mr. Gates is right, I know we can get there.

-Libby Crimmings

PS: Check out this video I made with some clips from the week!

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